Recent reviews by stark.eddard

Lekker! A short but in many regards exceptional horror adventure game. A rare breed. At times somewhat reminiscent of Sanitarium and obviously Stasis. Truly gruesome and dark. Solid visuals (amazing backgrounds, pretty meh models, okay-ish animations), great audio, well-written story.

Actually enjoyed it more than Stasis all in all. A no... brainer (pun intended), especially considering it's free. Would recommend even if it wasn't.

What a game! And what a ride! Kingmaker is a huuuuge memorable adventure, a very strong contender to the title of the best CRPG of all-time. There are many small critiques to be pointed out but on all major fronts that matters the game is truly impressive: nearly flawless implementation of Pathfinder 1E systems, most deep and versatile character-building in an RPG, fantastic visuals and UI, competent story and surprisingly well written dialogues and proper NPC characterisation (PoE is in comparison a pretentious and oververbose non-sense), probably the best itemisation ever. It is there on par with BG2.

Damn shame and a telling sign of the modern day decline that the game went almost completely under the radar of the so-called game journos that could not bother (or cope?) with anything more than a half-baked "reviews". In a perfect and just world it would have been Game of the Year 2018. Huge kudos to Owlcat Games

P.S. The entire experience is almost entirely bug-free now.

Prey is one of the best immersive sims of the recent years. It walks in the shoes of the classic System Shock but stands tall on its own, resting on several robust pillars: sandboxy gameplay with a wide variety of possible approaches to surmounting obstacles depending on your character build, fluid combat and action, great level design, gorgeous artstyle and solid narrative even if a tad tropey. Most importantly, all these systems and elements mesh well together, merging into a great overall experience. Talos 1 is one of the greatest interconnected location seen in a video game. The well-done sci-fi main plot is enhanced by the sometimes mundane but very much relatable stories of the 200-odd crew and research team aboard the space station. The game is also well-optimized and does not overstay its welcome.

Damn shame it did not top any charts and sold all that well as it is ten times the masterpiece than the best-selling blockbuster shlock.

Yet something is lacking. and for some reason I cannot truly explain, Prey has not earned a place among my personal Hall of Fame. System Shocks 1 and 2, Thief 1 to 3, Dishonored made a more lasting impact. I will have to mull this over a bit, why is that.

To cut the long story short - a definite recommendation to anyone who enjoys games with substance and ideas behind it. You should definitely give it a chance and try it out.

A proper mini-adventure that is essentially a side-story to the Kingmaker's main campaign. It is of hefty length and despite clearly being a limited budget-y thing it is made with love and great attention to details. Having played through the DLC and then main campaign, one has to admit it is masterfully woven into the story and was concevied well in advance. Little details like finding your General (Varnhold's MC) in the Lostlarn Keep, having him at the tavern, all the tie-ins with Maegar Varn and meeting... ehm, Cephal later - all that adds immensily to the feeling of a living-breathing world with great characters.

The DLC itself has a handful of maps, some good exploration and especially, dungeoning, more than a few challenging fights. And heap of great items that you can also get later in the main campaign. Certainly, no small adventure, ends just short of being a full-fledged story. An easy 8/10. Recommend.

Just finished Divinity: Original Sin II. Wow, what a ride. I've been playing computer games for 20+ years with CRPGs being among my favourite genres, and I have to say this was one heck of an adventure. At its roots its a Larian Divinity game - colourful, uneven, silly at times, a bit on the simplistic side narrative-wise but hugely fun with a good balance of humour and seriousness, and loads of charm - all of it is cranked up to eleven.

DOS II is an eye-candy, one of the most beatiful isometric-like (not really isometric by any means though) games out there. It's visually stunning, has a great art style. Unlike the first game which was also great in many aspects but unlimately fell apart after Cyseal, DOS II carries on strong and continues to postively surprise until the very end. And the sheer size of the game.. it's huge. Gorgeous locations, expansive maps.

Largest improvement in my opinion is in the story/writing department. The overarching plot is somewhat banal, not really something we hadn't seen, or not particularly anything "deep". That been said, it's actually compelling and most impressive is how various plotlines and threads intertwine, react to your choices, while the real story is uncovered. Sometimes it's really masterfully done, sometimes not so much, but overall - kudos to the writers, great job! Especially with the characters - the companions and main NPCs are what to a large extent brings the game to the next level. Very vivid personalities with interesting backstories. And the addition of the narrator was a neat trick indeed - I was skeptical at first, but it really added to the feeling of being inside an adventure fantasy.

Combat and character development is also a step forward from DOS. One of the best turn-based tactical systems. Huge variety of skills and builds. Just play and experiment. Still ways to improve though: main attributes aren't that interesting (mostly maxing your main damage att, some in constitution, memory early on, wits a bit or a lot if you're going for crit), would like much more traits. I am still not entirely convinced of the necessity to separate physical and magical armor, it does gets a bit gimmicky, but it's not a dealbreaker, you get used to it.

What I didn't like is the increasing curve of character power in later levels, the way it scales is not optimal. As well as loot scaling and the balance between random and unique items - it is kinda broken.

The C&C overall is very good, but here you really need to do several playthroughs to give a verdict. Let's put it this way: the larger illusion of choice is there, each quest can be approached and solved differently. The somewhat open Ultime-style system where you can kill most of the NPCs, do A LOT of creative stuff is a very rare guest these days. This does lead to numerous bugs though, particularly the journal is still broken on some quests.

Many also criticize the later chapters, but I actually found them solid, a bit more focused on tying up plotlines and building up for the finale. Which was not mindblowing but satisfying all in all.

Great soundtrack. Larian's new composer Borislav Slavov (oldtimers might remember him from Knights of Glory, later Crysis 2 & 3) has outdone himself, great original music, very good covers of old Divinity tunes and homages to Kirill Pokrovsky (Larian's brilliant composer for 15 years who passed away). One of the top 2017 music scores.

As a conclusion. Main question: Should one buy it? I would say - definitely. Tastes and people in general differ a lot, one might not like it at all. Well, I can only speak for myself. I enjoyed the game A LOT, and would recommend to anyone who is willing to commit dozens of hours. Heck, I liked it enough to write a review - not something I normally do. Thanks for the great adventure Larian!

Eador: Masters of the Broken World is the very definition of a "flawed gem". It's a brilliant turn-based strategy with classical "heroesque" tactical battles, solid stronghold and province management component and profound RPG systems on top of that all. Add to that a uniquely structured campaign (albeit a one that's a bit too long to my liking) in an interesting charming setting with a good deal of both humour and seriousness. Imagine if Heroes of Might and Magic and Master of Magic had an illegitimate child. That's pretty much what Eador is. Sounds utterly fantastic, right? If only that was the whole deal.

Unfortunately not everything is sunshine and roses. Masters of the Broken World is actually a sort of a remake and a sequel, all-in-one. It took the great gameplay mix described above straight from its predecessor - Eador: Genesis. The idea was to greatly enhance the graphical appearance of the game with tons of *shinies* and stuff. Too bad it didn't really work out as planned. The new graphics aren't ugly, even somewhat nice but mostly awkwardish. The interface was a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mess at launch and although it got better with patches, it's still pretty clunky. Add to that the fact that despite all the updates the army of bugs is still undefeated to this day.

To summarize: the game is fantastic at its core, it has one of the best gameplay in the genre, but the technical side of things leaves much to be desired. Be prepared to battle the interface and fend off nasty glitches and bugs. Having said that, I must stress once more that despite the shortcomings, the game itself is brilliant. Don't let yourself be frightened off by superficial things, embrace the addiction.

A true classic. Being one of the ancestors (let's not forget SS1) of the *Shock series*, SS2 is still, and by far, the best game among them all. It's scary, it's tense, it has proper RPG systems and plenty of freedom unlike modern corridor popamole games. Sure, the graphics are dated (after all, it's been 14 years since release), but with help of mods and your imagination it won't matter a bit. In other words, the game is fantastic and is definitely worth playing.

Endless Space is a 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) turn-based space strategy. I've been playing it since alpha and have to admit that it's a sort of a mixed blessing. Let me list all the pros and cons as I see it to give you a better picture.

PROS: Solid graphics with fantasticly detailed awesome planet textures, neat art style, memorable and diverse races, clean and slick UI, some of the core game systems, e.g. the FIDS concept (Food, Industry, Dust, Science), research trees are quite the beasts with many interesting techs.
MIXED: Battle system is controversial. Player has a limited input on the battles - no direct control over ships, just cards (actions), formations and targeting. I don't mind the concept as a whole and it got better with the Disharmony addon, but there's for improvement IMO. Heroes are also in the so-so category, their ability trees are dull and not diverse enough although I like the concept. Events are cool but too few and not detailed enough to my taste.
CONS: Diplomacy is weak in its current form + you have to research even the most basic types of interactions which really hurts multiplayer, espionage is basicly non-existant. Fast early expansion aka system grabbing is still the best strategy for most races, the penalties are not strong enough to encourage alternative strategies in most cases.

Even with many negatives I consider Endless Space to be one of the better 4X strategies of the last years. It lacks depth as a single-player experience IMO, most game systems are too straightforward and multiplayer has plenty problems of its own. Still, if you dig the genre and don't expect ES to be the best 4X strategy ever you might sink couple hundred hours into it not without pleasure.

Probably the best grand strategy game from Paradox to date. It might probably seem a bit too complicated for a newcomer but once you get the hold of it, simpler strategies like Civilization series (sans IV probably) will seem dull in comparison. As you are essentially playing as a Dynasty, expect some nice RPG elements to it. All in all, if you happen to love strategy games and aren't afraid of taking some time to learn the mechanics, CK2 is a must have.